1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the art of exterior rearview vehicle mirrors which provide the driver of the vehicle at least three, full, clear, undistorted views of oncoming vehicles. Particularly the invention relates to external, laterally extending, rearview, mirrors on one or both sides of a vehicle forwardly of the driver's seat, outboard from the windshield zone and having three independently adjustable upright side-by-side mirrors movable in all planes to reflect to the driver's eyes, zones along both sides and rearwardly of the vehicle without any distortions or blind spots all the way up to the mirror itself which is positioned forwardly of the driver's eyes.
2. Prior Art
Heretofore known external rearview mirrors projecting laterally from the sides of the vehicle forwardly of the driver's seat and adjacent the windshield zone of the vehicle were not capable of providing a clear unobstructed, undistorted view of zones adjacent the sides at the rear of the vehicle and all the way up to the mirror itself. Blind spots were encountered especially in the areas where an oncoming vehicle in a side lane approaches, then overlaps, the rear of the vehicle and advances up to mirror. Attempts to minimize these blind spots with curved mirrors resulted in distortion which confused the driver and gave rise to accidents. Further, attempts to lessen the blind spots with twin side-by-side mirrors failed to clearly reflect zones where the oncoming vehicle is fully in a side lane just behind the vehicle all the way up to the plane of the mirror itself which is positioned ahead of the driver's eyes. Thus the outboard twin mirror could not be tilted to cover both the close approaching zone and the overlapped zone up to the mirror.
It would therefore be an improvement in this art to provide external rearview vehicle mirrors projecting laterally from the vehicle just forwardly from the driver's seat outward from the windshield zone which have three side-by-side adjacent inboard, central, and outboard upright mirrors which are independently adjustable in all planes to provide fields of vision to the driver, behind the vehicle, alongside the rear of the vehicle and then all the way up to the mirror itself ahead of the driver's seat.
It would be a specific improvement in this art to provide a cup-shaped casing or housing for mounting on one or both sides of a vehicle just forwardly from the driver's seat adjacent the windshield zone which encloses three side-by-side upright mirrors that are independently adjustable to provide the driver with unobstructed, undistorted, wide and longitudinally elongated views of oncoming traffic both to the sides and rear of the vehicle.
A specific feature of this invention is to laterally align upright, side-by-side, inboard, central, and outboard rearview vehicle mirrors each in its own compartment in a housing with at least the central and inboard mirror having adjacent edges inclined from the vertical to reflect overlapping views projecting outwardly adjacent the vehicle windshield from one or both sides of a vehicle with the mirrors being independently adjustable being in all planes to provide the driver with unobstructed vision of oncoming vehicles both to the sides and rear of the vehicle all the way up to the mirrors ahead of the driver's seat.